I can't remember the last time I saw something that I actually recognize.
This has been my country for 52.9 years and I don't recognize it anymore.
It must be what it is like to have Alzheimer's or dementia and everything you know and love is slowly becoming blurry and unknown to you. You think maybe you remember that chair or the person in the photo but you can't quite make sense of it.
I alternate between outrage and a deep sadness. And then there is the total silence where you just sit with it and are afraid to ask the real questions...
...what is next? Why?
I was talking to my daughter and I told her that I feel like we are in that space between when a child falls down hard and they are silently taking in that huge gulp of air and the bloodcurdling scream that comes next. You know the silence will be short lived and you know instinctively what is coming next and it ain't gonna be pretty.
The economy? Unsustainable debt and either a purposeful plan to run us deep into the ditch or an arrogant disregard for simple logic and mathematics.
Our government? A system so far from the republic we were that the consequences seem unfathomable. There is no longer even a pretense of representation. Take all the polls you want - they simply do not care about anything but a very specific agenda.
Destabilization is evident all around the world. Pick a crisis -North and South Korea threatening war, the EU falling apart and their economies falling like dominos, the middle east and Israel increasing their rhetoric and threats to powder keg status, world leaders resigning daily (Japan and Germany just this week), our national press covering stories with an alarming bias, the Gulf coast economy devastated, a stock market that is so skittish that they have now installed a "circuit breaker" so it can only fall so far in one day.
Freedoms? Irrelevant.
Consequences? Mounting like there is no tomorrow.
Solutions? Hmmm, seems like the oil spill in the Gulf is a pretty good allegory for what is happening. Let's point fingers and blame and watch the situation compound each day. And wonder...
do you see anything familiar?
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2 comments:
It seems a little overwhelming at times w/ everything going on. I remind myself that 1 person can make a difference. The hubby & I are looking at becoming one of the nature conservancy volunteers to go down south and help w/ the clean up of the oil spill - hopefully to clean up the birds.
Excellent, Shelley. Wish I was closer to the area and could offer you guest quarters!
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